Jon Armstrong and co-driver Shane Byrne bounced back from an early scare to secure an impressive eighth overall on Rally Sweden – scoring four FIA World Rally Championship points on their second Rally1 start.
Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy came home in ninth spot, to ensure the Irish competitors were inside the top 10 in performances for the duos.
As in Monte-Carlo, the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy duo of Armstrong and Byrne showed promising pace throughout the weekend, finishing just 19.6 seconds behind 2024 World Rally Champion Thierry Neuville.
Despite suffering punctures on Friday, Armstrong demonstrated his growing confidence with the Rally1 car, setting the sixth-fastest time on stage five despite losing intercom communication twice over heavy compressions.
The Fermanagh driver went fastest through the opening split of stage seven before a puncture struck his Puma, hampering what could have been an eye-catching stage time.
A mid-Saturday set-up change improved Armstrong’s confidence in the Puma. The adjustment paid immediate dividends as he went on to set a sixth-fastest time on stage 13 and a top-five time on the Umea Sprint, underlining his ability to match established Rally1 competitors.
Armstrong maintained his competitive pace on Sunday with further strong stage times that secured eighth overall, marking a significant step forward in his early Rally1 career.
“It was a really good rally overall,” said Armstrong.
“Obviously, it didn’t start perfectly – on the first stage we missed a braking point and went into a ditch. The front of the car filled with snow, which blocked the air intake, so we lost power and dropped around 45 seconds.
“That was really frustrating, but we bounced back well and had a strong Friday. We also had a couple of punctures – one we were quite lucky with, as it was close to the end of the stage, but the other we had to drive on for a while, so we lost some time there.
“From then on, the focus was on having a good rally and seeing how close we could get to the front-running pace.
“On some stages, we were really close, down to around 0.4 seconds per kilometre or less. Considering our road position, the cleaning effect, and the fact it’s only our second Rally1 event, there were some very encouraging stage times. I think we have to be happy with the performance.”
Elfyn Evans won the event and took over at the top of the world championship as Toyota filled the top four places.
Evans had held a slender 13.3-second lead over Japanese team-mate Takamoto Katsuta overnight and extended it by another second at the finish, with Finnish driver Sami Pajari third and Sweden’s Oliver Solberg fourth.
Toyota also filled the top three places in the season-opening Monte Carlo rally and the back-to-back podium lockouts were the first since Citroen in 2010.
Evans, winner in Sweden for two years in-a-row, now has 60 points and leads Solberg by 13, with Katsuta a further 17 behind.
The Welshman and Katsuta each won a stage on the snow-covered roads in Sunday morning’s loop but Evans made sure of the win in the final Power Stage.
“It’s an incredible feeling to drive on these fast stages in such nice winter conditions and when you feel good in the car, it’s always a pleasure,” said Evans.
“We didn’t have a huge margin coming into the final day and with so many points available on Sundays, we had to push until the end but we can be very happy with what we came away with. It’s been a great start to the year.”
Additional reporting: Reuters